Xamarin: Cheaper, Faster, Smarter Enterprise Mobile Apps

Mobile applications are trending as the way enterprises deliver content and operational tools.

But moving into the mobile space can be tricky and there are some questions that can be difficult to navigate, like: “Do we choose HTML5? Native? Something in between?” and “Are we going to have to maintain two mobile apps? Or should we just go with Android or iOS?” In recent years, a solution has appeared that can make answering these questions simple.

“Since the introduction of the Apple App Store in 2008, enterprises have struggled to mature their mobile efforts to match customer expectations. Many lack the organization, budget, talent, metrics, culture, processes, and technology to keep pace.”

Forrester: The Future of Mobile Application Development

Introducing Xamarin

Xamarin is a cross-platform native mobile development framework that lets you code once and get both native iOS and Android apps from that effort. A dream come true, right? And what makes Xamarin even better is that it is part of the .NET ecosystem and equipped to work with cloud enterprise architecture. This means you can deliver a mobile application to your users even faster using Microsoft Azure to spin up a .NET or Node.js backend to drive your application.

Your team and Xamarin

The Xamarin framework is written in C#, so if your team is already working with .NET the language and design patterns will be familiar. Teams that work with other enterprise frameworks will find that the conventions of C# are very similar to languages like Java and JavaScript. Whatever your team’s familiarity level, Xamarin University provides an extensive training and certification process that can get your developers ready to support a Xamarin app in just a few weeks.

Your business and Xamarin

Perhaps the biggest advantage Xamarin offers is getting you the mobile application you need at a significantly reduced cost. Furthermore, harnessing the power of Azure’s data driven services means that your app will be able to use all the big data, analytics, machine learning, and AI magic you desire.

Why we like Xamarin

Let’s face it, Microsoft has found a new stride. Recent decisions by the company, like open-sourcing .NET and contributing TypeScript to the JavaScript community (which ended up being the language the Google team chose to use for Angular 2) were completely unexpected and refreshingly out of character for the tech giant. This new approach has many of us excited about what the company is up to and where they are going.

For T4G, Microsoft’s decision to add Xamarin into the .NET ecosystem is one of the most exciting developments we’ve seen from Microsoft in recent memory. T4G has a team of talented .NET, iOS, and Android developers, but previously there was a gap in the ecosystem that kept us from achieving significant growth in the enterprise mobile space. Xamarin was just what we needed to close the gap. Xamarin enabled us to enter the enterprise mobile space at a competitive price point because we only had to maintain a single code base and we didn’t have to train our developers on native technologies. Furthermore, our extensive experience with Microsoft Azure made it possible to build apps on top of a scalable architecture harnessing all of the intelligent data services the cloud has to offer.

Is Xamarin right for your business?

I need my application to work on Android and iOS I want a native experience and performance I want to reduce my build and maintenance costs My application is too complex for HTML5 My team has .NET or Azure capabilities

If your answer is ‘yes’ to any or all of the above, T4G can help you get started. Our team is experienced with and passionate about the Xamarin/Azure combo and its ability to let us quickly design and deliver intelligent enterprise mobile applications. We marry it with a Human Centered Design process that lets us really understand the challenges of your users and validate solutions with them before they’re built. Then, in a matter of weeks, we work together to deliver a product MVP to your users.

Learn more about how T4G can help you build intelligent mobile applications with Xamarin and Azure at www.T4G.com/xamarin

Rickey Pannell

Rickey, based out of the T4G Halifax office, is a Technologist and Innovation Strategist who draws on Design Thinking, Lean Startup, and Agile methodologies to help our customers solve the hard problems that deliver competitive advantage.